Over 100 people took part in youth organisation Woodcraft Folk’s recent Celtic camp which ran from Monday 29th July to Monday 5th August. The site was near Carlisle at Ratlingate Scout Activity Centre and very close to remnants of Hadrian’s wall.
71 young people attended from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Cardiff, Machynlleth, Southampton and France. Young people chose the theme of Dragons and Unicorns which influenced the programme of events, activities with even a unicorn dessert was on offer.
The event was the first outing for Scotland Woodcraft Folk’s new marquee, which provided a great space for activities and meals, as well as lots of co-operation to put up and take down! Activities including orienteering, crafts, parachute drops, baking, laughter yoga, whittling, shelter building, a dragon hunt and knife and axe throwing(!) alongside all the usual clan tasks were on offer. The arrival of sunshine also led to some fun water and bubble play including a water slide!
Other fun activities included a wonderful ceilidh with the charities own 12 piece band including a try of some Palestinian Dabkeh dancing, a fabulous pea fair with lots of great stalls, an entertaining Merrymoot, and campfires ending with a closing ceremony and burning of a handmade dragon.
A really important aspect of the camp were the measures taken to ensure the camp was as accessible as possible. This included having an accessibility sub-group, hiring an activities centre with an indoor dorm, contacting everyone with stated access needs in advance to ask what could be put in place for them, and having a raised washing up station as well as low down one.
There were also subsidised places for those that needed it and a daily space offered for people to talk about difficulties and challenges. To try and be as green as possible the camp was also meat free, and a new (though not entirely successful) design of passive water heating for washing up was trailed. Items where possible were also repurposed for the programme such as old rope for hammock making, old tents for hammock and sandwich wrap making, and inner tubes for crafts etc, and more than half the campers came by public transport.
It was a really, genuinely cooperative camp with young people taking the lead in much of the planning and delivery. It was also the first time there was a MEST UP centre at a Scottish, Welsh or Celtic camp.
Scottish Officer Fleur Fleur Gayet says:
“Thank you to everyone who helped make the camp a success particularly the co-ordination team, van drivers and those helping out at the store, pre-camp team, accessibility team, KP team, health and safety team, site services team, programme team, and MEST UP team, as well as everyone on camp who all worked and played co-operatively enabling many happy experiences to be had and memories to be made.”
Young attendees from the camp said, “All of it was AMAZING!!!”, “Best camp food ever!!!”, “I enjoyed being a MEST UP rep!”, and “Thank you everyone for putting together such a lovely camp!!! Definitely a week to remember”
If you are interested in joining your local Scotland Woodcraft Folk group, you can find your nearest at https://woodcraft.org.uk/find-a-group